books:

	Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation Frans Johansson Harvard Business School Press, 2006 - 207 pages average customer review:based on 36 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Frans Johansson?s The Medici Effect shows how breakthrough ideas most often occur when we bring concepts from one field into a new, unfamiliar territory, and offers examples how we can turn the ideas we discover into path-breaking innovations.


A great read

A great book on innovation and outside the box thinking. Many innovators may find that their thinking, curiosity, and intuitiveness are outlined in the pages of this book. Use it as a catalyst for new ideas and possibilities. Ideation, in today's world, must have a broader scope and more examination. This book will help spark the possibilities within you.

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Quick, Quick Delivery

My daughter needed this book for a class in college. I paid extra for next day delivery and it was here the next day.


The Road to Systematic Innovation?

At first glance, "The Medici Effect" can seem like yet another quick-read business book that simply restates the obvious. The author's basic thesis is this: to spur innovation, we must bring people together from different backgrounds and disciplines.

Well, that seem true enough... Just visit Thomas Edison's complex at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, for an early example of this so-called "intersection of innovation." (Museum curators have done a fantastic job reconstructing his entire laboratory.)

What saves this book from the dust pile is the author's willingness to go beyond the easy answers. Brainstorming can often fail, says Johansson, and he spells out the most common pitfalls in great detail. Likewise, he says that building a culture of innovation must include both punishments and rewards for those involved -- even if those rewards are largely intangible. "Positive failure" is another powerful concept -- the idea that failure can be encouraged, managed and optimized for faster innovation.

Johansson illustrates his main point with a dozen or more entertaining anecdotes from a wide variety of fields, ranging from neurobiology at Brown University to video games to the restaurant business.

Along the way, he provides practical guidelines for team leaders and team members alike. Johansson knows that innovation isn't limited to PhD's in white lab coats or oddball geniuses with bad teeth. All of us are capable of (at least contributing to) breakthrough innovations, given the right support system and organizational attitude.

Of all the concepts Johansson presents, I found his section on "associative barriers" to be the most interesting. Here's a quick summary: As we become more knowledgeable about a particular field, we also begin to limit our cognitive freedom to make strange, unpredictable associations. For example, if I say "police," most people would associate that word with things like crime, violence, jail, justice or lawbreakers. Relatively few would jump to other associations, such as childhood disease or solar energy. By breaking down these associative barriers, we can see new connections and find new solutions to seemingly intractable problems.

If you don't have time to read the entire book (short as it is), I strongly recommend this section. The Medicis would certainly approve.

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a bit repetitive, but totally worth reading

this is a quick read on where real innovation comes from. johansson contends that there are two kinds of creativity and innovation. one is linear, staying within one field of study, one body of knowledge. most companies (and people) who are trying to innovate, attempt this directional innovation. like, an engineer who tries to think up a new way of building a bridge by surveying bridges already built and thinking of a refinement or change.

johansson contends that this kind of innovation is rare, and never substantial when it happens. we're too locked into our modes of thinking, and we put up barriers to potentially innovative influences from outside the field (because they're seen as a threat or a distraction).

the second kind of innovation is intersectional. it's the stuff that comes from the intersection of two different fields of study or bodies of knowledge. this is where - the author contends - all deep and significant innovation occurs. johansson gives dozens of helpful illustrations -- like, how a knowledge of the feeding patterns of african ants helped inform truck drivers trying to find the quickest route through the swiss alps at any given time.

anyone interested in being innovative should read this book. it's a great book for a team read and discussion.

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Excellent insights for entrepreneurial minded folks

I think the basic premise is solid--your best chances of true innovation come from the "Intersection." It's something I had known before--I often look for lessons from other industries, to see how they apply to mine. But he expanded the concept to go beyond cross-industry pollination, to include intersections between business and biology and other less obvious combinations. The first half of the book was a real page turner. Second half slowed down--a bit of re-hashing, and overly detailed explanations for some obvious ideas. Still, overall an excellent book that I will recommend to others.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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